Dollar General sells Clairol Balsam hair color for $3 – that’s their every day price, so no need to rush out. Use the $2 coupon from 8/11 rp and pay a buck. Wait until Saturday for the $5/$25 coupon or buy something and it will print on your receipt. I bought five boxes, used five $2 coupons and a $5/$25 printed on the receipt, good tomorrow. So I will return and buy nine boxes ($27) less $18 in coupons, less $5 store coupon and pay $4 plus tax. I like having a hair color reserve for PITA and her friends, so it’s worth paying the buck.

Then on to Ultra where we encountered what I thought (hoped) was a large breakfast sandwich, ’cause blogging builds up an appetite!  Alas, the box said “product enlarged for detail.”   How depressing.

Then on to the stuff we really came for:  charcoal, Bayer aspirin and shaving gel/foam.   Kingsofrd charcoal is on sale for $6.48 with a $2 store coupon in the ad.  Stack with the $2 mfr coupon in the new Jewel ad.  There isn’t any limit, but you will need an Ultra store coupon for every bag purchased.  Weird.  

Many varieties of Bayer were on sale for $1.88, so I grabbed 16 boxes and paid with a $2 expired coupon.  Unfortunately, they reduced each and every one by .12.  sigh  The Gillette shaving creams are also on sale for $1.88, so I used the $6/3 coupon from 8/11 rp.  Customer service wanted to see the coupon because it was over $3.  At first they were going to reduce the value to match the items, but it turned out that two of the cans rang at $2.19 (really odd, because I bought 3 cans of each variety!), so that would have taken up the overage and they left the coupons as they were.  Remember that Ultra has a 12 like coupon limit unless the coupon indicates a lesser amount, as these Gillette ones do (4 like).

Some of the Food4Less locations have a huge display of Gillette shave gels/foams for $1.78 – even cheaper, but this is definitely a ymmv and you may or may not encounter resistance with the 4 like coupon wording.

My advice?  If at all possible, head over to Walmart for a price match.  I’ve been very pleased with all the employees of any of the Walmarts I’ve actually shopped (the store in Villa Park was a creephole and I walked out without buying anything).